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Blood count is an important diagnosis and prognosis tool adopted in veterinary medicine. In addition, it plays extremely important role in preoperative assessments. Thus, the aim of the current study is to assess the results of preoperative blood counts performed in dogs kept in a municipal animal shelter in Zona da Mata Mineira region, who were subjected to sterilization. Blood samples of 63 male and female adult mongrel dogs kept in the aforementioned animal shelter were collected. Hematological analyses were performed at the Clinical Veterinary Laboratory of Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), based on standard laboratory procedures. Results were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), which was followed by Duncan's Multiple Range Test carried out in the SPSS statistical software. Although the analyzed hematological parameters did not show statistically significant changes in comparison to reference values, several of them presented some abnormalities, as seen in the high standard deviation observed in the test results. Thus, 22 animals (34.9%) had anemia, most of them were classified as hypochromic microcytic cases; 25 animals (39.7%) had leukocytosis due to neutrophilia, whereas 3 animals (4.8%) had leukocytosis due to neutrophilia with regenerative left shift; 20 animals (31.7%) had eosinophilia; 8 animals (12.7%) had lymphopenia; 7 animals (11.1%) had monocytosis; and 10 animals (15.9%) had thrombocytopenia. Furthermore, the assessed dogs have shown significant increase in total plasma protein levels. It is worth emphasizing the importance of performing preoperative blood count in order to identify hematological changes that could lead to surgical risks, or even to postoperative complications in these animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]